Tampa Electric Achieves CO2 Reduction Milestone

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PR - Tampa Electric today announced that it has successfully completed its Chicago Climate Exchange Phase I greenhouse gas reduction commitment of 4 percent below the average of the years 1998-2001.

As a member of the Chicago Climate Exchange through its parent company, TECO Energy, Tampa Electric is recognized by the organization as complying with the most rigorous standards for greenhouse gas emissions available in North America today. The company joined Chicago Climate Exchange in 2004.

In a letter to the company, Chicago Climate Exchange Chairman and CEO Richard Sandor said, “Upon enrolling in Chicago Climate Exchange, Tampa Electric took bold and practical action to help build an international carbon reduction market at a time when leadership in this area was rare.”

Sandor commended the company’s leadership in promoting best practices in greenhouse gas emissions management and corporate sustainability.

President Chuck Black said, “We are pleased with this recognition, which reinforces the hard work of our entire team to dramatically improve Tampa Electric’s environmental profile, and we’re proud of the resulting air quality improvements that benefit our customers and the communities we serve.”

Since it embarked on a 10-year, $1.2 billion environmental improvement plan in 1998, the company has reduced its system’s carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent, while at the same time achieving reductions in pollutants like sulfur dioxide or SO₂ (91 percent), nitrogen oxide or NOx (59 percent; 89 percent by 2010); mercury (74 percent) and particulate matter (75 percent), all compared with 1998 levels.

Few coal-fired plants, including in Florida, have made this level of reductions.